Week in Review

During the Arab Spring President Obama told Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak that he had to go. A man who was the anchor of peace in the Middle East. Since then the Middle East has grown less safe. And closer to Iran. Which hates Israel, the United States and Western Civilization.

The most organized political opposition in Egypt at the time of the Arab Spring was the Muslim Brotherhood. An organization that Mubarak had outlawed in Egypt. As they tended to agree more with Iran than they did with the Mubarak regime. When they stepped in to fill the political vacuum left by Mubarak President Obama and his fellow Democrats were quick to recognize the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Even gave them military aid. Despite their being a terrorist organization (see Saudi Arabia lists Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah as terror groups posted 3/7/2014 on UPI).

Saudi Arabia added the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah and two Syrian-based groups to its list of terrorist organizations Friday, officials said…

Abdel Latif al-Sheikh, head of the Saudi religious police, described the Brotherhood, Hezbollah, ISIS and al-Nusra Front as groups “ruled from outside to serve political purposes.”

“They are groups that fight moderate Muslims and are causing troubles around the world. This is what we consider against Islamic principles and has given a negative impression about Muslims in the West,” Sheikh said.

Here’s something you don’t hear often. Or ever. A Muslim nation speaking out against Islamist extremism. But Saudi Arabia prefers peace. Which is why they liked Hosni Mubarak. And were very unhappy seeing him go. Especially with the Muslim Brotherhood replacing the Mubarak regime. Mubarak kept the peace. The Saudis liked that. Even though they don’t much care for Israel. But they would take a peaceful world with Israel in it any day over a world without Israel if it meant having no peace.

Israel is not the source of all the unrest in the Middle East. There is a huge divide in Islam that has killed more than any war or occupation involving Israel has killed. Sunni versus Shia. Saudi Arabia is Sunni. Egypt, too. While Iran is Shia. Saudi Arabia prefers peace. Iran prefers revolution. Which is why Hosni Mubarak was good for Egypt. Saudi Arabia. Israel. The Middle East. And world peace. The Saudis understood this. Which is why they call the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. While the Obama administration does not. Which is why they gave military aid to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Week in Review

President Reagan made a joke once during a sound check before a radio address. He said, “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” News of this joke leaked out. And reached the Soviet Union. And the Soviets did not find it amusing. Instead, they put the Soviet Far East Army on alert. You see, our enemies did not think much of Reagan’s comedic abilities. For with him they did not know when he was joking. Unlike President Obama (see Iranian general: Obama’s threats are ‘the joke of the year’ by Marissa Newman posted 3/4/2014 on The Times of Israel).

“The low-IQ US president and his country’s Secretary of State John Kerry speak of the effectiveness of ‘the US options on the table’ on Iran while this phrase is mocked at and has become a joke among the Iranian nation, especially the children,” General Masoud Jazayeri said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Jazayeri was responding to the US president’s interview in Bloomberg on Sunday, in which Obama maintained that the Iranian leadership should take his “all options on the table” stance — including the warning of a potential military strike — seriously…

The Iranian news agency Tuesday published a political cartoon mocking the US president, calling it: “All Options on Table.” This Time for Russia.” In a jab at US non-intervention in Ukraine, the cartoon portrays Obama peering forlornly into an empty paint can with the label “Red Line” while Russian President Vladimir Putin walks away saying, “I think you used it all on Syria…”

Under an interim deal clinched in November, Iran agreed to curb parts of its nuclear program for six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief. The agreement came into effect on January 20.

“The (nuclear) negotiations are going well … I’m hoping by the first deadline (July 20) we will reach an agreement,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi on February 28…

“I can tell you that Iran’s nuclear program will remain intact. We will not close any program,” he said, according to Reuters.

President Obama is raking up the honors. A Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. The Lie of the Year in 2013. And now the Joke of the Year in 2014. Pity he hasn’t won some of the awards most Americans want him to win. The Best Economy of the Year award. And the Most Respected World Leader of the Year award. Two awards President Reagan did win. His outlawing Russia joke was really funny, though, and he should have won Joke of the Year, too. But here President Obama has him beat.

The Iranians will not close any nuclear program? If not why then did we lift those sanctions? It makes no sense. Unless President Obama is going after yet another award. The Most Naïve World Leader of the Year award. Where he’s been a perennial favorite to win every year since 2009.

Politics 101

Democrats offered Enthusiastic Applause for Unsound Policy Proposals that have no Basis in Reality

President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address was a little longer than an hour. But if you didn’t look at a clock it felt a lot longer. For it was the same tripe you hear all the time from this administration. And the political left. It was full of misleading statements. Inaccurate facts and figures. And some lies. The usual stuff you expect from the liberal left. But what was really disturbing was the enthusiastic applause for some really unsound policy proposals that have no basis in reality. Showing either how clueless these enthusiastic Democrats are about economics, business, national security, etc. Or how amoral they are in their quest for power. As they judge and implement policy not by how it will improve the lives of Americans. But how it will improve their lives in government.

If there was ever an example of what people not to have in power this state of the union theater was it. Following are excerpts from President Obama’s speech (see FULL TRANSCRIPT: Obama’s 2014 State of the Union address posted 1/28/2014 on The Washington Post). Comments and analysis follow each excerpt.

And here are the results of your efforts: the lowest unemployment rate in over five years; a rebounding housing market — (applause) — a manufacturing sector that’s adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s — (applause) — more oil produced — more oil produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world, the first time that’s happened in nearly twenty years — (applause) — our deficits cut by more than half; and for the first time — (applause) — for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world’s number one place to invest; America is.

The total number of people who left the civilian labor force since President Obama took office is 11,301,000 (see The BLS Employment Situation Summary for December 2013 posted 1/13/2014 on PITHOCRATES). Which means the unemployment rate is meaningless. The only reason why it’s falling is that the BLS doesn’t count unemployed people who gave up looking for jobs that just aren’t there. Oil production on private land may be up. While overall oil consumption is down because of the Great Recession that just won’t end. Which is helping to keep gas prices down. Unemployed people just don’t have the money to buy gas. So they don’t. Greatly reducing the demand for gas. Thus reducing gas prices and oil imports. George W. Bush’s last deficit was $498.37 billion. President Obama’s first deficit was $1,539.22 billion. And it was over $1 trillion in 2010, 2011 and 2012. It fell to $680 billion in 2013 thanks to the sequester. But the deficit is larger now than when President Obama assumed office. The only reduction in the deficit is a reduction in the amount he increased it.

Now, as president, I’m committed to making Washington work better, and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.

Really? You’re committed to rebuilding the trust of the people? Mr. “If you like your health insurance you can keep your health insurance. Period.” Otherwise known as the lie of the year. You’re going to rebuild the trust of the people? Good luck with that. What with your pants on fire and all.

Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by; let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.

Well, finally something Republicans can agree with the president about. Yes, his economic policies have benefitted Wall Street. While hurting Main Street. Finally some bipartisan agreement.

So let’s make that decision easier for more companies. Both Democrats and Republicans have argued that our tax code is riddled with wasteful, complicated loopholes that punish businesses investing here, and reward companies that keep profits abroad. Let’s flip that equation. Let’s work together to close those loopholes, end those incentives to ship jobs overseas, and lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs right here at home. (Cheers, applause.)

There are only a few reasons why businesses export jobs. And the big three are taxes, regulations and labor costs. The Obama administration wants to raise taxes. They’ve increased regulatory costs. And they support costly union labor. So everything they stand for encourages businesses to export jobs.

But — but I’ll act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible. (Applause.)

So how’s that approval for the Keystone XL pipeline coming along? That thing you’ve been studying since 2010? Which by the laws of arithmetic is approximately 4 years ago. Is this slashing bureaucracy and streamlining the permitting process? At this rate it would probably be quicker to elect a Republican president in 2016. You know, someone who, when it comes to economic activity, walks it while the Democrats only talk it.

We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech manufacturing jobs. And my administration’s launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Youngstown, Ohio, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies.

Universities are in the grant business. They want as many grants as they can get to help bring money into the university. And to do so they will study anything the government wants them to. No matter how wasteful it is. While some of the biggest high-tech companies started in garages. Apple, Google, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft. To name a few. Yes, there is a lot of university-driven research. But the big innovation is more entrepreneurial. Created by people thinking up new stuff no one thought of yet. Which is the last thing you want government involved in. That same government that can’t build a website using 1990s technology.

Let’s do more to help the entrepreneurs and small business owners who create most new jobs in America. Over the past five years, my administration has made more loans to small business owners than any other. And when 98 percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia-Pacific will help them create even more jobs. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the USA.” (Applause.)

You want to help entrepreneurs and small business? Get rid of Obamacare. And slash tax rates. This will provide incentive. And allow them to reinvest more of their earnings to grow their business. Allowing them to create those jobs.

Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The “all the above” energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today America is closer to energy independence than we have been in decades. (Applause.)

‘All of the above’ as long as it isn’t coal, oil or nuclear. But if it’s solar power and wind power they are committed to giving more tax dollars to their friends and bundlers in the green energy industry.

Meanwhile, my administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and jobs growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations. (Applause.)

You can’t sustain production and jobs growth by strengthening protection of our air, water and pristine federal lands. That’s just more regulatory costs. And raising energy costs by not allowing any oil or natural gas production on those pristine federal lands. Raising energy costs by restricting supply. Which raises business costs. In addition to those new regulatory costs.

Every four minutes another American home or business goes solar, every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don’t need it so we can invest more in fuels of the future that do. (Cheers, applause.)

That says it all. Fossil fuels don’t need subsidies because their costs are affordable. While solar (and wind power) are so costly that they are unaffordable. Unless government heavily subsidizes them.

But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. (Applause.) And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did. (Cheers, applause.)

There is no such thing as settled science. Only science that has yet to be disproved. Besides, once upon a time glaciers stretched down from the poles to near the equator. And then receded back to where they are now. All without any manmade carbon in the atmosphere to warm the planet. As we were still simple hunter and gatherers then. So if the glaciers moved more before there was manmade global warming they’ll move again regardless of what man is doing to warm the planet.

Finally, if we’re serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement — and fix our broken immigration system. (Cheers, applause.) Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted, and I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same. Independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades. And for good reason: When people come here to fulfill their dreams — to study, invent, contribute to our culture — they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate and create jobs for everybody. So let’s get immigration reform done this year. (Cheers, applause.) Let’s get it done. It’s time.

Funny how that argument doesn’t apply to birth control and abortion. The reason we need to “fix our broken immigration system.” For if we were having babies at the rate when government created the welfare state we could pay for that welfare state today. But thanks to the Sixties, birth control, abortion and feminism women stopped having babies. Which is fine if a woman doesn’t want to. But the progressives designed the welfare state based on them being baby machines. Creating a greater number of taxpayers with each generation. So more people pay into the welfare state than collect from it. The way it must be for a Ponzi scheme to work.

That’s why I’ve been asking CEOs to give more long-term unemployed workers a fair shot at new jobs, a new chance to support their families. And in fact, this week many will come to the White House to make that commitment real.

When you raise the cost of labor (union labor, Obamacare, etc.) businesses tend to look at automating production instead of hiring that costly labor. They may not be able to do anything about the higher regulatory costs but they can do something about higher labor costs. Use more machines than people. If you want CEOs to create new jobs stop making labor so costly. And you can start with getting rid of Obamacare.

Of course, it’s not enough to train today’s workforce. We also have to prepare tomorrow’s workforce, by guaranteeing every child access to a world-class education. (Applause.)…

Five years ago we set out to change the odds for all our kids. We worked with lenders to reform student loans, and today more young people are earning college degrees than ever before. Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C., are making big strides in preparing students with the skills for the new economy — problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, math.

Yes, more kids are going to college than ever before. But they’re going there to have fun. And to facilitate their fun many are getting easy, worthless degrees in the social sciences and humanities. Costly degrees that universities sold them promising them future riches. Enriching the university. While impoverishing their graduates. For a high-tech company has no use for these degrees. Which is why a lot of these people end up in jobs they didn’t need that costly degree to do. And our high-tech companies are using the visa program to get foreigners who have the skills they want. Problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering and math.

It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test. But it is worth it — and it is working.

If you want kids to do better we need to champion marriage and family more. And they should embrace religion a little more. Instead of encouraging our young women to use birth control and abortion to avoid marriage and family. And pulling every last vestige of religion from our lives. Kids growing up in a household with a mother and a father who go to church do far better on average than kids growing up in a single-parent household and don’t go to church (see Strong families steeped in Conservative Values and Traditions do Well in America posted 1/11/2014 on PITHOCRATES).

Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education. (Applause.) Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every 4-year-old. And as a parent as well as a president, I repeat that request tonight.

Actually, research doesn’t show that. Yet they keep saying that. For it’s like that line in the musical Evita, “Get them while they’re young, Evita. Get them while they’re young.” The sooner they can take them away from their parents the sooner they can start turning them into Democrat voters. Such as teaching them to blame their parents for the manmade global warming that is killing the polar bears as they have no ice to rest on while eating their baby seals.

You know, today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment.

Women deserve equal pay for equal work. (Cheers, applause.)

Actually, it’s closer to 91 cents (see The White House’s use of data on the gender wage gap by Glenn Kessler posted 6/5/2012 on The Washington Post). And the small difference is not due to discrimination but personal choice. When you look at aggregate wages women will make less than men. Because more women are teachers (with 3 month off without pay) than men are. Some women work fewer hours at work to spend more time with their children. While men tend to work more overtime. Men also work the more dangerous and higher paying jobs. And are more likely to belong to a union. When you compare childless, single men and women with a college degree some women are actually earning more than men. Figures don’t lie but liars figure. And for the contortions the Obama administration did here The Washington Post’s The Fact Checker gave the president one Pinocchio.

Now, women hold a majority of lower-wage jobs, but they’re not the only ones stifled by stagnant wages. Americans understand that some people will earn more money than others, and we don’t resent those who, by virtue of their efforts, achieve incredible success. That’s what America’s all about. But Americans overwhelmingly agree that no one who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. (Applause.)

In the year since I asked this Congress to raise the minimum wage, five states have passed laws to raise theirs.

You’re not going to have a lot of upward mobility when you pay people more to remain in the jobs they hate. All the talk about making college more affordable and bringing employers and community colleges together to help give people the skills they need to fill the jobs employers have is all for nothing if they just pay people more for doing an entry-level job.

Let’s do more to help Americans save for retirement. Today most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security check often isn’t enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t help folks who don’t have 401(k)s. That’s why tomorrow I will direct the Treasury to create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings: MyRA. It’s a — it’s a new savings bond that encourages folks to build a nest egg.

Once upon a time people opened a savings account at their local bank and they saved to buy a house. And they saved for their retirement. That’s how people saved when they didn’t have a pension or a 401(k). They can’t do that today because of the Federal Reserve destroying the banking industry by keeping interest rates at zero. If the Fed stopped printing money and let investment capital come from our savings like they did before the Keynesians gave us the Federal Reserve people would be saving like we once did. And we’d stop having Great Depressions, stagflation and Great Recessions. Created by their prolonging the growth side of the business cycle. Which raises prices higher than they normally would go. Making the contraction side of the business cycle that much more painful. As those prices have a much longer way to fall than they normally would. Thanks to the Fed’s meddling with interest rates.

MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in. And if this Congress wants to help, work with me to fix an upside-down tax code that gives big tax breaks to help the wealthy save, but does little or nothing for middle-class Americans, offer every American access to an automatic IRA on the job, so they can save at work just like everybody in this chamber can.

You know why they want these MyRAs? Because they can’t stand people saving money. They love Social Security. Because they can borrow from the Social Security Trust Fund. Which is what they will do with these MyRAs. They will take this money and spend it. Filling the MyRA Trust Fund with a bunch of IOUs. Just like they do with the Social Security Trust Fund. And then provide a retirement benefit like Social Security. That is too small to live on. Whereas if we saved the money ourselves our retirement nest-egg will be much larger. And it will provide for our retirement. Unlike Social Security.

And since the most important investment many families make is their home, send me legislation that protects taxpayers from footing the bill for a housing crisis ever again, and keeps the dream of homeownership alive for future generations. (Applause.)

It was Bill Clinton that set the stage for the subprime mortgage crisis with his Policy Statement on Discrimination in Lending (see Bill Clinton created the subprime mortgage crisis with his Policy Statement on Discrimination in Lending posted 11/6/2011 on PITHOCRATES). Using the heavy hand of government to get lenders to qualify the unqualified. Then the Fed’s artificially low interest rates were the bait for the trap. Enticing people to borrow huge sums of money because those interest rates were just too good to pass up. Even if they weren’t planning to buy a house to begin with. The subprime mortgage crisis and the resulting Great Recession were government made. If we want to prevent the taxpayers from footing the bill for another housing crisis we need to get the Keynesians out of government.

Already, because of the Affordable Care Act, more than 3 million Americans under age 26 have gained coverage under their parents’ plans. (Applause.)

More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage — 9 million. (Applause.)

The Washington Post gave this lie three Pinocchios (see Warning: Ignore claims that 3.9 million people signed up for Medicaid because of Obamacare by Glenn Kessler posted 1/16/2014 on The Washington Post). For they’re counting some 3.9 million who would have signed up anyway for Medicaid regardless of the Affordable Care Act. Also, the government was counting people who put a health care plan into their shopping cart as if they signed up for it. Which many couldn’t. As they haven’t programmed the back end of the health care website yet to actually accept payment or to pass that information on to the insurers.

And here’s another number: zero. Because of this law, no American, none, zero, can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a pre-existing condition like asthma or back pain or cancer. (Cheers, applause.) No woman can ever be charged more just because she’s a woman. (Cheers, applause.) And we did all this while adding years to Medicare’s finances, keeping Medicare premiums flat and lowering prescription costs for millions of seniors.

That’s right. Women with reproductive systems that men don’t have won’t pay more for their health insurance than men pay for theirs. How can they do that? Simple. They just are charging men more. To cover the cost of a reproductive system they don’t have.

Citizenship means standing up for the lives that gun violence steals from us each day. I have seen the courage of parents, students, pastors, and police officers all over this country who say “we are not afraid,” and I intend to keep trying, with or without Congress, to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans in our movie theaters and our shopping malls, or schools like Sandy Hook. (Applause.)

If you take away guns from law-abiding gun owners that won’t keep dangerous people with mental health issues that want to harm people out of our movie theaters, our shopping malls or schools like Sandy Hook. For there are other ways to harm people. Just look at the Boston Marathon bombers. The people he’s talking about not only had mental health issues but they were also smart. Many were even college students. Who probably could think of other ways to hurt people. And you just can’t take away everything they might use to harm people. But you can place these people somewhere where they can’t harm anyone.

You see, in a world of complex threats, our security, our leadership depends on all elements of our power — including strong and principled diplomacy. American diplomacy has rallied more than 50 countries to prevent nuclear materials from falling into the wrong hands, and allowed us to reduce our own reliance on Cold War stockpiles.

Since President Obama assumed office he did nothing to support the Green Revolution in Iran. Which kept the hard-line Islamists in power there. He gave Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood by telling Hosni Mubarak that he had to go. Removing the stable anchor of the Middle East. And moved Egypt closer to Iran. (The Egyptian people eventually rose up to overthrow the oppressive Muslim Brotherhood). He went to war in Libya and helped to overthrow Colonel Muammar Qaddafi. Who at the time was a quasi ally in the War on Terror. After the Iraq invasion frightened him into believing he may be next. President Obama was thanked for his Libyan war by al Qaeda with 4 dead Americans in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11. He waited too long to act in the Syrian civil war. Which only brought al Qaeda into the conflict. He failed to attain a status of forces agreement in Iraq. So he pulled all U.S. forces out of Iraq which has only invited al Qaeda in. And it looks like this will be repeated in Afghanistan. He blamed George W. Bush’s wars as recruitment tools for al Qaeda. While his extensive drone use is doing the same thing. Especially in Yemen. The hotbed of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. All that his diplomacy and leadership has done was to make the world a more dangerous place.

American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being eliminated. (Applause.) And we will continue to work with the international community to usher in the future the Syrian people deserve — a future free of dictatorship, terror and fear.

His diplomacy with Bashar al-Assad in Syria only gave his oppressive regime legitimacy in the civil war he was raging against his people. Making it easier for Assad to kill Syrians with conventional arms while he gives up a token amount of his chemical weapons. While also making Russia who brokered the deal the dominate player in the region.

And it is American diplomacy, backed by pressure, that has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear program — and rolled back parts of that program — for the very first time in a decade. As we gather here tonight, Iran has begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium.

It’s not installing advanced centrifuges. Unprecedented inspections help the world verify every day that Iran is not building a bomb. And with our allies and partners, we’re engaged in negotiations to see if we can peacefully achieve a goal we all share: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. (Applause.)

All Iran is doing is pausing their program. And chemically altering some of their enriched uranium to meet the requirements of this diplomatic deal. But this chemical process is reversible. And they will reverse it once they get what they want. This deal makes the world no safer. If anything it makes it more dangerous. For it does not diminish the Iranian nuclear program in the least. But gives them more time to work on it as they prop up their regime with much needed supplies thanks to a relaxation of the sanctions against them.

These negotiations will be difficult; they may not succeed. We are clear-eyed about Iran’s support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, which threaten our allies; and we’re clear about the mistrust between our nations, mistrust that cannot be wished away. But these negotiations don’t rely on trust; any long-term deal we agree to must be based on verifiable action that convinces us and the international community that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today. (Applause.)

The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible. But let me be clear: if this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. (Applause.) For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed.

The Soviet Union never attacked U.S. soil. And there was a reason they didn’t. They were rational. And knew they would lose a great deal in a war with America. Especially a nuclear one. Which is why they never used their nuclear weapons. But Iran giving a nuclear weapon to a shadowy group that is not a state? With little to lose in using a nuclear weapon? If it’s not a nuclear missile there will be no way in knowing where the nuclear bomb came from. We can have our suspicions that Iran made it and gave it to someone. But do we nuke Iran over that? What if there are more nukes in the hands of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, etc.? You could nuke Iran back to the Stone Age but it won’t stop those others being used. The president insists this will not happen as Iran signed an agreement. The only problem with that is the Iranians are liars. And they call the United States the Great Satan. These two facts suggest that replacing those sanctions with a promise not to build nuclear bombs was probably not a wise trade.

But for more than two hundred years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress: to create and build and expand the possibilities of individual achievement; to free other nations from tyranny and fear; to promote justice and fairness and equality under the law, so that the words set to paper by our founders are made real for every citizen.

Use our collective shoulder to expand individual achievement? The president believes in the former more than the latter. He didn’t help the Iranians get free from tyranny when he had the chance. And he turned the Egyptian people over to tyranny. The Muslim Brotherhood. Who were oppressing women and Christians. Fairness and equality under the law? Ask those Tea Party groups who were targeted by the IRS about fairness and equality under the law. The Constitution? That document of negative rights? The left hates it. And insists it’s a living document that can evolve over time to suit the needs of an expanding government. So they can do exactly what the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution to prevent from happening.

The Left endorses Unsound Policy Proposals with no Basis in Reality to improve their Chances of Winning Elections

The country is more conservative than liberal (see Liberal Self-Identification Edges Up to New High in 2013 by Jeffrey M. Jones posted 1/10/2014 on Gallup). Which is why liberals want state-funded pre-K to start indoctrinating our children as soon as possible. To get them away from their parents so they can begin the process of turning them into Democrat voters. It’s why kids are getting worthless social science and humanities degrees. To further indoctrinate them. Because their views are minority views. So they need to play loose with the facts. And lie. Which is easier to do with indoctrinated kids than educated adults. You’ll even hear Democrats talk about lowering the voting age. To get a few more years of voting out of these kids before they grow old and wise. And begin voting conservative. So they do what they can to dumb down education. Lie. Cheat. And buy as many votes as they can by giving away free stuff. And the thing they really want to give away is citizenship for illegal aliens. Who they are sure will be forever grateful. And show it by voting Democrat.

This explains the enthusiastic applause for unsound policy proposals that have no basis in reality. For the left is not interested in improving the lives of Americans. They just want to improve their chances of winning elections.

History 101

Candidate Barack Obama said during the 2008 presidential campaign that he would talk to our enemies. Without preconditions. He would discontinue the gunboat diplomacy of George W. Bush. Instead he would open a dialogue with the people who wanted to kill us. Find out why they wanted to kill us. And then resolve those issues that caused our enemies to want to kill us. Which was the core of his foreign policy. Being nice to our enemies to get them to like us. And once they did they would stop killing us.

Some say this started with the Obama apology tour. With his message of appeasement in Cairo in June 2009. Where he told our militant Islamist foes, those people who have a tendency to kill Americans, we only want to live together in peace. And that there is a level of conservative Islamism that was acceptable to the United States. When the Arab Spring began in Iran (a sponsor of anti-American/Western terrorism) in June of 2009 (after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won reelection despite reported irregularities) President Obama did nothing to support the Iranian protestors. And the enemies of the United States took notice. The Cairo speech of appeasement. Not condemning the Iranian election results and telling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he had to go (as he would tell Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak). The message was clear. America’s enemies could do whatever they wanted. Even become a rogue nuclear power (see Iran: US and others ‘surrendered before the great Iranian nation’ in nuclear deal by Alexander Smith posted 1/14/2014 on NBC News).

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said world powers including the United States “surrendered before the great Iranian nation” in agreeing an interim nuclear deal with his country, state media reported Tuesday.

Iran reached the deal with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the U.S., Canada, Britain, China, and Russia– and non-member Germany…

Speaking to a crowd gathered in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan on Tuesday, Rouhani said: “Do you know what the Geneva agreement means? It means the big powers have surrendered before the great Iranian nation.”

Apparently appeasing our enemies only makes our enemies bolder. And stronger. Which is probably not a good thing. North Korea is a rogue nuclear state. But their need for food and energy make it unlikely that they will launch a nuclear weapon. They have so far used the threat of doing so just to get what they desperately needed. Food and energy. Militant Islamists, though, want to rid the world of anyone who is not a militant Islamist. Even if they have to die in the process. Which they don’t mind. Because for them this world is only the prelude for the far better afterworld. Whereas the regime running North Korea has no desire to die. They enjoy living in the here and now. And know that won’t continue if they launch a nuclear weapon.

Neville Chamberlain opened a Dialogue with a Lying Adolf Hitler who lied to Chamberlain

The Allies blamed Germany for World War I. And the Versailles Treaty made the peace following the war a difficult one for Germany. Blame for the war, war reparations, loss of territories, emasculation (severe limits on Germany’s military strength), etc. It did a number to German esteem. Especially when they didn’t technically lose World War I. The war ended in an armistice. Where the combatants agreed to a cease fire as they were all exhausted by war. Of course, America’s entry into the war would have most likely led to a German surrender. For they were not yet exhausted by years of war. And could extend the conflict indefinitely until Germany did surrender. But that didn’t happen. Which made for a lot of angry Germans when the Allies treated them as if they had surrendered unconditionally. Setting the stage for an Adolf Hitler to come to power. Which is what happened.

The war left the Germans isolated. Russia pulled out of World War I before its completion and devolved into revolution. Bringing the communists to power. Replacing Russia with the Soviet Union. These developments left them, too, isolated in the post-war world. And then these two isolated nations found each other. Signing the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922. Renouncing any territorial or financial claims between them from the war. And becoming trading partners. Among other things. Such as using Soviet soil to rebuild German armed forces in direct violation of the Versailles Treaty. Where they trained for armor warfare. Built an air force. And even developed chemical weapons. This new eastern friendship had another shared interest. Poland.

Germany and Russia lost portions of Poland following World War I. And they wanted them back. But Hitler tested the waters first. To see how the war-weary allies would react. He marched troops into the demilitarized Rhineland in violation of the Versailles Treaty. And the Allies did nothing. Hitler sent an ultimatum to the Austrian chancellor to hand over power to the Austrian NSDAP (i.e., Austrian Nazi Party) or he would invade Austria. The Austrian chancellor did. And Hitler’s Wehrmacht marched triumphantly into Austria the following day. And the Allies did nothing. Then Hitler turned his eyes to Czechoslovakia. And the Sudetenland. Which he wanted to annex into the Third Reich. And he was willing to do this with an armed invasion. Something that got the war-weary Allies’ attention. For the last thing they wanted in Europe was another war. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler. And opened a dialogue with him. Finding Hitler to be a reasonable man. And the Allies agreed to give Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland to Hitler. With Czechoslovakia having little say in the matter. But it was for the greater good. “Peace in our time.” And it was the last territorial acquisition he wanted. He promised. So Hitler got the Sudetenland. And within 6 months Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia. Without firing a single shot. Because the Allies were so eager to appease Hitler that they never considered that he was lying to them. Which he was.

The Treaty of Rapallo allowed the Nazis to build the War Machine they eventually Unleashed on the Soviet Union

With the southern border of Poland secured thanks to the Allies giving Czechoslovakia to Germany it was time to recover their lost territory in Poland. All they needed was a little help from their new best friend. The Soviet Union. And it came in the form of a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed August 23, 1939. Promising that neither would go to war with the other. Or ally with a nation that does. As well as the secret agreement to invade and divide Poland. As well as dividing up Bessarabia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, etc. Then, on September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland. Launching World War II. Something they couldn’t have done if it weren’t for their new best friend. The Soviet Union.

After Poland came Norway. Then France and the Low Countries. The British held the Nazis off in the Battle of Britain. Then came North Africa. Yugoslavia. And Greece. Then came Operation Barbarossa. Starting on June 22, 1941. Something Hitler thought about since writing about it in Mein Kampf back in 1925. Finding Lebensraum (i.e., living space) for the German people. In particular the Bread Basket of Europe. The Ukraine. Which if you know your history, and your geography, was part of the Soviet Union. Yes, that’s right. Hitler lied to Joseph Stalin to get what he wanted. Launching off points for the conquest of the Soviet Union. A land he viewed as filled with sub-humans he would kill off with famine after taking their food.

The Soviet people paid a dear price for their leader’s treachery. Enduring hell on earth on the Eastern Front. With some 20 million dead by the time it was over. It was these innocent Soviets who won World War II. Who wore down the Germans with their wholesale dying. At times 10 Soviets dying for every one German. None of which would have happened if Stalin had read Mein Kampf. Or if he didn’t make a pact with the Devil that led to World War II. The secret agreements in the Treaty of Rapallo. Letting the Nazis develop the war machine they eventually unleashed on the Soviet Union. Which just goes to show you that you need to understand who your enemies are. And once you do you cannot try to make nice with them. For they will turn on you once you’ve served your useful purpose. Just like Hitler turned on Stalin. As Iran will turn on the United States after they served their useful purpose in getting them their nuclear weapons. And when that time comes the cost of that war will be far greater than it would have been if it was fought before they had nuclear weapons. With scenes from that war looking more like Hiroshima and Nagasaki than the hell on earth of the Eastern Front

Week in Review

The American left has been critical of free speech that they don’t agree with. Nancy Pelosi has stated she would like to bring back the Fairness Doctrine (aka the Hush Rush Bill). Forcing radio stations who carried conservative talk shows like the Rush Limbaugh show to carry equal programming of the opposite viewpoint. For try as they might liberals have no Rush Limbaugh of their own. So if they can’t beat them they would like a law to encourage broadcasters to drop these conservative talk shows. As they probably would if they were forced to carry an equal amount of programming of the opposite viewpoint. For it would be easier just not to carry controversial programming.

And then there’s net neutrality. Which is kind of like the Fairness Doctrine for the Internet. But more complex. And more murky. The left likes the idea of enforcing net neutrality. Especially if they could shut down conservative websites they didn’t like. For that would make it harder to fund raise. And you wouldn’t have to use the IRS to illegally impede conservative fundraising. Like they did with Tea Party groups in the 2012 election. Getting caught in that was just a pain in the ass for the Democrats. And they would love to be able to do the same thing without anyone throwing the Rule of Law in their face.

The rollout of Obamacare was not all that great. And the White House didn’t like what they were hearing in the media. So they called in their friends in the liberal media. And said you’re killing us. Please don’t say these things anymore. And, instead, say these talking points. Lie for us. Just help us get these idiots (the people losing their health insurance because of Obamacare) off of our backs. It was an ‘off the record’ meeting so we don’t know exactly what they said. But this was probably the gist. A return to that recurring theme of theirs. Trying to censor bad things being said about them. Using these sneaky ways because they just can’t do this (see Vietnam: Criticize government on social media and go to jail by Dara Kerr posted 11/29/2013 on CNET).

Vietnam is joining the ranks of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China, as being known as a country that censors its citizens on social media.

The government introduced a new law this week that fines people $4,740 for posting comments critical of the government on social-networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, according to Reuters. Some people could also face extensive prison terms.

While the law is unclear about what kind of speech sparks government censorship, it does say that “propaganda against the state” and “reactionary ideology” would elicit fines.

Vietnam’s communist government has increasingly censored its citizens’ free speech over the past few years. According to Reuters, arrests and convictions for criticizing the government online have skyrocketed the last four years…

In a recent Global Transparency Report, Google said that it has seen an alarming incidence in government requests to gather information on their citizens. Some of the top offending countries in Google’s report include the US, India, and Germany.

You know the Obama administration would love to do this. You should at least not be surprised if they did. For they are spying on us. And collecting information on us. Using the IRS to silence the opposition. Lying to us, telling us a YouTube video killed our ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi. Something they are tired hearing about. And no doubt envy Iran, Saudi Arabia, and China for being able to do what they want to do but can’t. Having the power to take away our free speech.

Politics 101

The government shutdown is over. And we avoided defaulting on the national debt Or so they say. So who won and who lost? Well, at this point in time it looks like the Democrats lost less than the Republicans. But it is the American people who lost. For they are stuck with Obamacare for the time being. And President Obama can raise the national debt to a new record high. But it gets worse. This morning the president gave a petulant, God-awful speech scolding the Republicans, the Tea Party, talk radio, the blogosphere and pretty much anyone else who dares to oppose Obamaism (see Transcript of Obama Remarks on End of Standoff posted 10/17/2013 on The Wall Street Journal).

Good morning, everybody. Please have a seat.

Well, last night, I signed legislation to reopen our government and pay America’s bills. Because Democrats and responsible Republicans came together, the first government shutdown in 17 years is now over. The first default in more than 200 years will not happen. These twin threats to our economy have now been lifted. And I want to thank those Democrats and Republicans for getting together and ultimately getting this job done.

There was never a risk of default. With $2.45 trillion in annual revenue coming into the treasury from the taxpayers there was never a risk of the $415.7 billion annual interest payment on the debt going unpaid. Lying about it just helped a petulant child get his way. Waaa.

Now, there’s been a lot of discussion lately of the politics of this shutdown. But let’s be clear: There are no winners here. These last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy. We don’t know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out there believes it slowed our growth.

What growth? Since coming to office the president’s policies have lost approximately 9,966,000 jobs through the September jobs report. That’s just shy of 10 million jobs he’s lost. So what recovery? Or is he just setting the stage to blame the worst economic recovery since that following the Great Depression on this 16 day shutdown? And not the lost economic activity from those 10 million or so lost jobs? Of course he is. Because what are 10 million jobs when he can stick it to the Republicans?

We know that families have gone without paychecks or services they depend on. We know that potential homebuyers have gotten fewer mortgages, and small business loans have been put on hold. We know that consumers have cut back on spending, and that half of all CEOs say that the shutdown and the threat of shutdown set back their plans to hire over the next six months. We know that just the threat of default — of America not paying all the bills that we owe on time — increased our borrowing costs, which adds to our deficit.

Yes, pity the government bureaucrats who had to go 16 days without reporting to work. Even though they will be paid for those 16 days they missed. Yes, pity the government bureaucrats. And not the 10 million who have disappeared from the labor force since President Obama assumed office. I mean, what are 5 years without a paycheck compared to missing 16 days of work? Which the taxpayers will still pay them for?

Businesses cut back on spending and hiring because of the great uncertainty of a 16-day shutdown? Are you sure it wasn’t the regulatory requirements of Obamacare that is forcing employers with close to 30 ‘full time’ employees (30 hours or more per week) to not hire any more workers? Even pushing full-time workers to part time? Are you sure this isn’t the reason why they’re not hiring? Especially with the cost of health insurance going through the roof now that it must cover everything under the sun (such as pediatric care for a couple whose children are now grown adults) as well as pre-existing conditions? Where someone can walk in off the street who was just diagnosed with cancer and buy an insurance policy for the first time in their life? Are you absolutely sure it’s the 16-day shutdown and not Obamacare? If so someone needs to attend a high school economics class to learn the first thing about economics.

And, of course, we know that the American people’s frustration with what goes on in this town has never been higher. That’s not a surprise that the American people are completely fed up with Washington. At a moment when our economic recovery demands more jobs, more momentum, we’ve got yet another self-inflicted crisis that set our economy back. And for what?

Again, are you sure it was the 16-day shutdown and not the 4 years or so of Obamacare?

There was no economic rationale for all of this. Over the past four years, our economy has been growing, our businesses have been creating jobs, and our deficits have been cut in half. We hear some members who pushed for the shutdown say they were doing it to save the American economy — but nothing has done more to undermine our economy these past three years than the kind of tactics that create these manufactured crises.

The last fiscal year ending deficit while George W. Bush was president was $498.37 billion (adjusted for inflation). At the end of the first fiscal year with President Obama in office the deficit soared to $1.539.22 trillion. An increase of 208.9%. It is this deficit number that he cut in half. The one he exploded with his near trillion dollar stimulus that did not stimulate anything but unions and the president’s cronies on Wall Street and in Big Business. Especially Big Green Business.

And the president had something else preventing him from spending as much as he did during his first term. Sequestration. Which the Democrats hate with a passion and want to get rid of. So they can turn on the spending spigot once again. Like they did during his first term.

And you don’t have to take my word for it. The agency that put America’s credit rating on watch the other day explicitly cited all of this, saying that our economy “remains more dynamic and resilient” than other advanced economies, and that the only thing putting us at risk is — and I’m quoting here — “repeated brinksmanship.” That’s what the credit rating agency said. That wasn’t a political statement; that was an analysis of what’s hurting our economy by people whose job it is to analyze these things.

Really? Brinkmanship? You don’t think adding $6.2 trillion to the national debt during your presidency had anything to do with the credit rating agency’s concern about our debt paying ability? A high school economics student can understand that the greater your debt is the greater your debt-paying problem. Funny how you don’t, Mr. President.

That also happens to be the view of our diplomats who’ve been hearing from their counterparts internationally. Some of the same folks who pushed for the shutdown and threatened default claim their actions were needed to get America back on the right track, to make sure we’re strong. But probably nothing has done more damage to America’s credibility in the world, our standing with other countries, than the spectacle that we’ve seen these past several weeks. It’s encouraged our enemies. It’s emboldened our competitors. And it’s depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership.

I thought it would have been your bad foreign policy that did all those things. Starting with the Green Revolution in Iran. An uprising of the people against the Islamist and oppressive government of Iran. The precursor to the Arab Spring. Where you did nothing. Leaving the good Iranian people with that oppressive Islamist government. Which is currently working to produce a nuclear bomb. Then there was the Arab Spring and you telling our friend and ally and anchor to peace and stability in the Middle East, Hosni Mubarak, that he had to go. Turning Egypt over to the anti-Western Muslim Brotherhood. And then there was Libya. Another ally in the War on Terror, Muammar Gaddafi (who joined the fight against terrorism after our invasion of Iraq), that he had to go. Turning Libya over to radical Islamists. Who killed four Americans in Benghazi. Then there was the red line fiasco with Syria. If you cross that red line I will hem and haw and stammer. Then I might say something else. Then Vladimir Putin steps in and saves the day for their Syrian ally. Russia. Who suspended all adoptions to Americans to spite America. Who are also helping the Iranians with their nuclear program. All the while laughing at President Obama who they see as weak. Who couldn’t get one nation to join him for military strikes against Syria. If you want to talk about our prestige on the world stage you gave that up long ago. For today no one fears the wrath of the United States these days. With some nations seeing the United States becoming irrelevant in the world. Especially Russia and China. As well as radical Islam.

Now, the good news is we’ll bounce back from this. We always do. America is the bedrock of the global economy for a reason. We are the indispensable nation that the rest of the world looks to as the safest and most reliable place to invest — something that’s made it easier for generations of Americans to invest in their own futures. We have earned that responsibility over more than two centuries because of the dynamism of our economy and our entrepreneurs, the productivity of our workers, but also because we keep our word and we meet our obligations. That’s what full faith and credit means — you can count on us.

And today, I want our people and our businesses and the rest of the world to know that the full faith and credit of the United States remains unquestioned.

There is a difference between economic investment and buying our bonds. Any money that buys government bonds is money pulled out of the economy. Investing in government bonds doesn’t create economic activity. It actually destroys economic activity. And the only worry the rest of the world had was what you were going to do, Mr. President. Would you not pay the interest on the national debt out of spite to attack the Republicans? That’s what they were worried about. For even they knew we had the money to pay our debt without new borrowing. They just don’t trust you.

But to all my friends in Congress, understand that how business is done in this town has to change. Because we’ve all got a lot of work to do on behalf of the American people — and that includes the hard work of regaining their trust. Our system of self-government doesn’t function without it. And now that the government is reopened, and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do, and that’s grow this economy; create good jobs; strengthen the middle class; educate our kids; lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul. That’s why we’re here. That should be our focus.

Strong words coming from a professional activist. For he was a community organizer. And taught activism. Funny how there are two types of activism. The good kind in his world. When it advances a liberal agenda. And the bad kind in his world. The kind based in conservatism. The president hates conservative activism, otherwise known as a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and believes it should be silenced and replaced with one-party rule.

Now, that won’t be easy. We all know that we have divided government right now. There’s a lot of noise out there, and the pressure from the extremes affect how a lot of members of Congress see the day-to-day work that’s supposed to be done here. And let’s face it, the American people don’t see every issue the same way. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make progress. And when we disagree, we don’t have to suggest that the other side doesn’t love this country or believe in free enterprise, or all the other rhetoric that seems to get worse every single year. If we disagree on something, we can move on and focus on the things we agree on, and get some stuff done.

And the Democrats calling the political opposition terrorists, arsonists, hostage takers, the Taliban, etc., how is that coming together to focus on the things we agree on? To get some stuff done? Well, Mr. President, it is obvious you believe compromise is the Republicans caving and becoming your bitch. This is not a government of the people, by the people and for the people. This is a government of, by and for you.

Let me be specific about three places where I believe we can make progress right now. First, in the coming days and weeks, we should sit down and pursue a balanced approach to a responsible budget, a budget that grows our economy faster and shrinks our long-term deficits further.

At the beginning of this year, that’s what both Democrats and Republicans committed to doing. The Senate passed a budget; House passed a budget; they were supposed to come together and negotiate. And had one side not decided to pursue a strategy of brinksmanship, each side could have gotten together and figured out, how do we shape a budget that provides certainty to businesses and people who rely on government, provides certainty to investors in our economy, and we’d be growing faster right now.

The last time we did this little dance it was the same. You want to raise taxes and cut no spending. That’s your idea of a balanced approach. Oh, you’ll promise spending cuts after we raise some taxes. But those spending cuts will never come. Democrats just don’t cut spending. Unless they get themselves stuck in a sequester. And that’s not even real spending cuts. It’s only smaller increases in future spending.

Now, the good news is the legislation I signed yesterday now requires Congress to do exactly that — what it could have been doing all along.

And we shouldn’t approach this process of creating a budget as an ideological exercise — just cutting for the sake of cutting. The issue is not growth versus fiscal responsibility — we need both. We need a budget that deals with the issues that most Americans are focused on: creating more good jobs that pay better wages.

Can the nation afford anymore of your job creation? After losing some 10 million jobs we should just cut our losses. And refuse anymore of your ‘help’ with the economy.

Cutting for the sake of cutting? What, we don’t have a debt crisis that requires our debt ceiling to be raised again and again? We’re spending too much. Hence the need to keep raising our debt ceiling. And Obamacare only makes this worse. A lot worse. Hence that 16-day government shutdown. Or did he miss that?

And remember, the deficit is getting smaller, not bigger. It’s going down faster than it has in the last 50 years. The challenges we have right now are not short-term deficits; it’s the long-term obligations that we have around things like Medicare and Social Security. We want to make sure those are there for future generations.

Oh, you are devious, Mr. President. The deficit is going down faster than in the last 50 years only because you raised it to record highs in your first year in office. Your smallest deficit is still larger than George W. Bush’s last deficit.

Medicare? You cut Medicare spending so you can spend that money on Obamacare. And Social Security? The Social Security Trust Fund has no cash in it. It’s stuffed with government IOUs. Because the government is spending so much money that they have to raid the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for it. And even that’s not enough to prevent deficit spending. So they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. This out of control spending is why Medicare and Social Security may not be there for future generations.

So the key now is a budget that cuts out the things that we don’t need, closes corporate tax loopholes that don’t help create jobs, and frees up resources for the things that do help us grow — like education and infrastructure and research. And these things historically have not been partisan. And this shouldn’t be as difficult as it’s been in past years because we already spend less than we did a few years ago. Our deficits are half of what they were a few years ago. The debt problems we have now are long term, and we can address them without shortchanging our kids, or shortchanging our grandkids, or weakening the security that current generations have earned from their hard work.

More on education? That’s to shore up the teachers’ underfunded pensions. Infrastructure? That’s just pork-barrel spending. Building airports where no one wants to fly. Or high-speed rail that requires constant government subsidies. Money that buys votes in Congress to pass huge spending bills. Like Obamacare. Which passed only by buying off Democrats with the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, the Florida Flim Flam, etc.

So that’s number one. Number two, we should finish fixing the job of — let me say that again. Number two, we should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system.

There’s already a broad coalition across America that’s behind this effort of comprehensive immigration reform — from business leaders to faith leaders to law enforcement. In fact, the Senate has already passed a bill with strong bipartisan support that would make the biggest commitment to border security in our history; would modernize our legal immigration system; make sure everyone plays by the same rules, makes sure that folks who came here illegally have to pay a fine, pay back taxes, meet their responsibilities. That bill has already passed the Senate. And economists estimate that if that bill becomes law, our economy would be 5 percent larger two decades from now. That’s $1.4 trillion in new economic growth.

There’s a reason why people hire illegal aliens. So they can pay them less than legal citizens. So once these illegals become legal they’re not going to work for illegal wages anymore. So it will raise labor costs. Forcing businesses to lay off some workers. Creating no net economic benefit. But the Democrats don’t care. Because it’s not about the economy. It’s about all those new Democrat voters. To turn the nation, like they turned California, Democrat.

The majority of Americans think this is the right thing to do. And it’s sitting there waiting for the House to pass it. Now, if the House has ideas on how to improve the Senate bill, let’s hear them. Let’s start the negotiations. But let’s not leave this problem to keep festering for another year, or two years, or three years. This can and should get done by the end of this year.

Really? A majority of people want immigration reform? And because of that we should pass it? Well, the majority of people want to repeal Obamacare. So perhaps this is a negotiation the Republicans and Democrats can agree on. To please the majority of people. Exchange immigration reform for the repealing of Obamacare.

Number three, we should pass a farm bill, one that American farmers and ranchers can depend on; one that protects vulnerable children and adults in times of need; one that gives rural communities opportunities to grow and the long-term certainty that they deserve.

You know, it was a farm bill that helped precipitate the Great Depression. Price parity. Increasing the price of farm goods so they were closer to the price of nonfarm goods. In response to their increased productivity due to the mechanization of the farm that produced bumper crops. Increasing supply beyond demand. Causing the price of farm goods to fall. So Hoover passed legislation raising the price of food. Making it harder to put food on the table for the average American. An example of the unintended consequences of government intervention. Such as requiring gasoline to include a portion of the corn crop. Thus raising the price of corn. And everything in the food chain downstream from corn. Like beef, chicken, milk, eggs, etc. No, the last thing consumers need who are trying to put food on the table is another farm bill.

Again, the Senate has already passed a solid bipartisan bill. It’s got support from Democrats and Republicans. It’s sitting in the House waiting for passage. If House Republicans have ideas that they think would improve the farm bill, let’s see them. Let’s negotiate. What are we waiting for? Let’s get this done.

So, passing a budget; immigration reform; farm bill. Those are three specific things that would make a huge difference in our economy right now. And we could get them done by the end of the year if our focus is on what’s good for the American people. And that’s just the big stuff. There are all kinds of other things that we could be doing that don’t get as much attention.

I understand we will not suddenly agree on everything now that the cloud of crisis has passed. Democrats and Republicans are far apart on a lot of issues. And I recognize there are folks on the other side who think that my policies are misguided — that’s putting it mildly. That’s okay. That’s democracy. That’s how it works. We can debate those differences vigorously, passionately, in good faith, through the normal democratic process.

And sometimes, we’ll be just too far apart to forge an agreement. But that should not hold back our efforts in areas where we do agree. We shouldn’t fail to act on areas that we do agree or could agree just because we don’t think it’s good politics; just because the extremes in our party don’t like the word “compromise.”

When the Republicans wanted to add tax breaks for small business in the stimulus bill President Obama refused to listen. Because he won the election. And elections have consequences, he said. And to the winner goes the spoils. When the Democrats had the House, Senate and the White House they had no interest in compromise. And didn’t. But when they don’t have all the power they expect the other side to compromise. And give them what they want. That’s their idea of compromise. Unconditional surrender.

I will look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work done. And there’s no good reason why we can’t govern responsibly, despite our differences, without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. In fact, one of the things that I hope all of us have learned these past few weeks is that it turns out smart, effective government is important. It matters. I think the American people during this shutdown had a chance to get some idea of all the things, large and small, that government does that make a difference in people’s lives.

We hear all the time about how government is the problem. Well, it turns out we rely on it in a whole lot of ways. Not only does it keep us strong through our military and our law enforcement, it plays a vital role in caring for our seniors and our veterans, educating our kids, making sure our workers are trained for the jobs that are being created, arming our businesses with the best science and technology so they can compete with companies from other countries. It plays a key role in keeping our food and our toys and our workplaces safe. It helps folks rebuild after a storm. It conserves our natural resources. It finances startups. It helps to sell our products overseas. It provides security to our diplomats abroad.

Really? You want to go there? Security of our diplomats? The administration that let 4 Americans die in Benghazi on its watch? Despite ample warnings? Warnings so serious that the British pulled out of Benghazi? Before our four diplomats were killed? But there was an election, wasn’t there? And we just couldn’t have trouble with terrorists during an election, could we? Not for the president that won the War on Terror with the killing of Osama bin Laden.

So let’s work together to make government work better, instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse. That’s not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. You don’t like a particular policy or a particular president, then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That’s not being faithful to what this country is about.

The Founding Fathers created LIMITED government. What we have today is far from limited. The progressives/liberals have destroyed what the Founding Fathers gave us. Today we have a big, fat, bloated bureaucracy. And the Republicans would like to change it by winning elections. Which isn’t that easy when the Obama administration suppresses the vote by turning the IRS loose on the Tea Party. Limiting their fundraising ability. Causing their turnout to be less than it was in the 2010 midterm election. When the Tea Party stirred the people to vote the House of Representatives back to the Republicans. Which they weren’t going to let happen in 2012. Hence using the IRS to suppress the Republican vote.

And that brings me to one last point. I’ve got a simple message for all the dedicated and patriotic federal workers who’ve either worked without pay or been forced off the job without pay these past few weeks, including most of my own staff: Thank you. Thanks for your service. Welcome back. What you do is important. It matters.

You defend our country overseas. You deliver benefits to our troops who’ve earned them when they come home. You guard our borders. You protect our civil rights. You help businesses grow and gain footholds in overseas markets. You protect the air we breathe and the water our children drink. And you push the boundaries of science and space, and you guide hundreds of thousands of people each day through the glories of this country. Thank you. What you do is important. And don’t let anybody else tell you different. Especially the young people who come to this city to serve — believe that it matters. Well, you know what, you’re right. It does.

And those of us who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our job as best we can. We come from different parties, but we are Americans first. And that’s why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It can’t degenerate into hatred. The American people’s hopes and dreams are what matters, not ours. Our obligations are to them. Our regard for them compels us all, Democrats and Republicans, to cooperate, and compromise, and act in the best interests of our nation –- one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thanks very much.

The majority of people want to repeal Obamacare. But the president doesn’t care about these American people. Because they don’t share his vision of expanding government power in our lives. People who would prefer to keep the health insurance they have. And the doctors they have. As well as not paying more for their health insurance. But what they want isn’t as important to President Obama as what he wants. So there is no compromise. No cooperation. Or acting in the best interest of the United States. For this may be one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Where all Americans are equal. Only some are more equal than others. Like those who share President Obama’s vision.

History 101

(Originally published September 18th, 2012)

Under the Bretton Woods System the Americans promised to Exchange their Gold for Dollars at $35 per Ounce

Wars are expensive. All kinds. The military kind. As well as the social kind. And the Sixties gave us a couple of doozies. The Vietnam War. And the War on Poverty. Spending in Vietnam started in the Fifties. But spending, as well as troop deployment, surged in the Sixties. First under JFK. Then under LBJ. They added this military spending onto the Cold War spending. Then LBJ declared a war on poverty. And all of this spending was on top of NASA trying to put a man on the moon. Which was yet another part of the Cold War. To beat the Soviets to the moon after they beat us in orbit.

This was a lot of spending. And it carried over into the Seventies. Giving President Nixon a big problem. As he also had a balance of payments deficit. And a trade deficit. Long story short Nixon was running out of money. So they started printing it. Which caused another problem as the US was still part of the Bretton Woods system. A quasi gold standard. Where the US pegged the dollar to gold at $35 per ounce. Which meant when they started printing dollars the money supply grew greater than their gold supply. And depreciated the dollar. Which was a problem because under Bretton Woods the Americans promised to exchange their gold for dollars at $35 per ounce.

When other nations saw the dollar depreciate so that it would take more and more of them to buy an ounce of gold they simply preferred having the gold instead. Something the Americans couldn’t depreciate. Nations exchanged their dollars for gold. And began to leave the Bretton Woods system. Nixon had a choice to stop this gold outflow. He could strengthen the dollar by reducing the money supply (i.e., stop printing dollars) and cut spending. Or he could ‘close the gold window’ and decouple the dollar from gold. Which is what he did on August 15, 1971. And shocked the international financial markets. Hence the name the Nixon Shock.

When the US supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War the Arab Oil Producers responded with an Oil Embargo

Without the restraint of gold preventing the printing of money the Keynesians were in hog heaven. As they hated the gold standard. The suspension of the convertibility of gold ushered in the heyday of Keynesian economics. Even Nixon said, “I am now a Keynesian in economics.” The US had crossed the Rubicon. Inflationary Keynesian policies were now in charge of the economy. And they expanded the money supply. Without restraint. For there was nothing to fear. No consequences. Just robust economic activity. Of course OPEC didn’t see it that way.

Part of the Bretton Woods system was that other nations used the dollar as a reserve currency. Because it was as good as gold. As our trading partners could exchange $35 for an ounce of gold. Which is why we priced international assets in dollars. Like oil. Which is why OPEC had a problem with the Nixon Shock. The dollars they got for their oil were rapidly becoming worth less than they once were. Which greatly reduced what they could buy with those dollars. The oil exporters were losing money with the American devaluation of the dollar. So they raised the price of oil. A lot. Basically pricing it at the current value of gold in US dollars. Meaning the more they depreciated the dollar the higher the price of oil went. As well as gas prices.

With the initial expansion of the money supply there was short-term economic gain. The boom. But shortly behind this inflationary gain came higher prices. And a collapse in economic activity. The bust. This was the dark side of Keynesian economics. Higher prices that pushed economies into recessions. And to make matters worse Americans were putting more of their depreciated dollars into the gas tank. And the Keynesians said, “No problem. We can fix this with some inflation.” Which they tried to by expanding the money supply further. Meanwhile, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on October 6, 1973, kicking off the Yom Kippur War. And when the US supported their ally Israel the Arab oil producers responded with an oil embargo. Reducing the amount of oil entering America, further raising prices. And causing gas lines as gas stations ran out of gas. (In part due to Nixon’s price controls that did not reset demand via higher prices to the reduced supply. And a ceiling on domestic oil prices discouraged any domestic production.) The Yom Kippur War ended about 20 days later. Without a major change in borders. With an Israeli agreement to pull their forces back to the east side of the Suez Canal the Arab oil producers (all but Libya) ended their oil embargo in March of 1974.

It was Morning in America thanks to the Abandonment of Keynesian Inflationary Policies

So oil flowed into the US again. But the economy was still suffering from high unemployment. Which the Keynesians fixed with some more inflation. With another burst of monetary expansion starting around 1975. To their surprise, though, unemployment did not fall. It just raised prices. Including oil prices. Which increased gas prices. The US was suffering from high unemployment and high inflation. Which wasn’t supposed to happen in Keynesian economics. Even their Phillips Curve had no place on its graph for this phenomenon. The Keynesians were dumfounded. And the American people suffered through the malaise of stagflation. And if things weren’t bad enough the Iranians revolted and the Shah of Iran (and US ally) stepped down and left the country. Disrupting their oil industry. And then President Carter put a halt to Iranian oil imports. Bringing on the 1979 oil crisis.

This crisis was similar to the previous one. But not quite as bad. As it was only Iranian oil being boycotted. But there was some panic buying. And some gas lines again. But Carter did something else. He began to deregulate oil prices over a period of time. It wouldn’t help matters in 1979 but it did allow the price of crude oil to rise in the US. Drawing the oil rigs back to the US. Especially in Alaska. Also, the Big Three began to make smaller, more fuel efficient cars. These two events would combine with another event to bring down the price of oil. And the gasoline we made from that oil.

Actually, there was something else President Carter did that would also affect the price of oil. He appointed Paul Volcker Chairman of the Federal Reserve in August of 1979. He was the anti-Keynesian. He raised interest rates to contract the money supply and threw the country into a steep recession. Which brought prices down. Wringing out the damage of a decade’s worth of inflation. When Ronald Reagan won the 1980 presidency he kept Volcker as Chairman. And suffered through a horrible 2-year recession. But when they emerged it was Morning in America. They had brought inflation under control. Unemployment fell. The economy rebounded thanks to Reagan’s tax cuts. And the price of oil plummeted. Thanks to the abandonment of Keynesian inflationary policies. And the abandonment of oil regulation. As well as the reduction in demand (due to those smaller and more fuel efficient cars). Which created a surge in oil exploration and production that resulted in an oil glut in the Eighties. Bringing the price oil down to almost what it was before the two oil shocks.

Politics 101

Once the Soviet People experienced Communism they discovered they did not like Communism

The Soviet people won World War II. For no matter how many Soviets the Nazis killed on the Eastern Front they just kept coming. The Nazis killed 10 Soviets for each Nazi the Soviets killed. But it wasn’t enough. They slowed down the Nazi war machine. Then the rains came. Then the Russian winter. Slowing them down at the gates of Moscow. And stopping them in Stalingrad. Halting the Nazi advance. And turning the tide in the war.

The Nazis were brutal to the Soviet people. Following the Wehrmacht into the Soviet Union was the Einsatzgruppen. Mobile killing squads. To do what the death camps did later. Hitler wanted the Russian land for food. And its resources. But he didn’t want the Soviet people. Except those he could use for forced-labor. That’s how cruel the Nazis were to the Soviets. Which wasn’t necessary to topple the Soviet regime. For the Soviet people would have embraced the invading Nazis as liberators.

Once the Soviet people had experienced communism following the Russian Revolution they discovered that they did not like communism. There were shortages of everything. And brutal state oppression. Which a communist state needs. For if they don’t oppress their people they may challenge the regime. Or try to escape. So it was Hitler’s brutality that allowed the Allies to defeat Nazi Germany. For it was only his brutality that made the Soviets rally around the Soviet state that they hated just as much at the time of the Nazi invasion.

The Russian Naval Facility in Tartus is the only Remaining Naval Facility outside of the Former Soviet Union

The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, was a cruel man. When it comes to killing your own people he tops the list in the sheer numbers killed. He’s right there with another communist dictator. Mao Zedong of the People’s Republic of China. But when it comes to killing the largest percentage of your own people the communist Pol Pot of Cambodia tops that list. So communist states are cruel and serious offenders of human rights. With Joseph Stalin being the cruelest and the greatest offender of them all. The man was as evil as Adolf Hitler. But you know who admired Stalin? Vladimir Putin. The Russian president.

Vladimir Putin is former KGB. That’s the secret police that put the fear of God into the Soviet people. They did what the Gestapo did to Germans in Nazi Germany. All powerful and above the law they could do anything to the ordinary Soviet. And did. Those in power liked it that way. Vladimir Putin admired the Soviet Union. And thought its collapse was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century.

Following World War II the Soviet Union started adding countries to the Soviet sphere. Eastern Europe. North Korea. North Vietnam. Cuba. And countries in the Middle East. Including Egypt. And Syria. Where Russia still has a naval base. The Russian naval facility in Tartus. Established in 1971. And is the only remaining Russian naval facility outside of the former Soviet Union.

Since the Fall of the Soviet Union Vladimir Putin has wanted to make Russia a Superpower Again

Israel is an American ally. During the Cold War the Soviet Union used this to agitate the Arab states into the Soviet sphere. The Soviets fomented radical Islam in the Arab states. To extend their hatred of Jewish Israel to the Judeo-Christian United States. Ally and sponsor of Israel. Christian Crusaders. And the Soviets were successful. They had Egypt. And Syria. Who fought Israel in the Six Day War (1967). And again in the Yom Kippur War (1973). A hot war in the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Then a dark period followed for the Soviet Union. Egypt swapped their alliance from the Soviet Union to the United States. And the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. When Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat made peace with Israel. Breaking up the great anti-Israel alliance that it worked so hard to promote. A devastating 1-2 body blow for the Soviets. Allowing their Cold War adversary greater hegemony in the Middle East. Tipping the balance of power in the Cold War. Which the Americans went on to win.

This is history Vladimir Putin did not much care for. Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union this former KGB officer wanted one thing. To make Russia a superpower again. He’s helping the Iranians with their nuclear program. And he’s supporting Assad in Syria. Bringing these Middle East nations into the Russian sphere. Outside of the American sphere. This history puts the politics of the Russian offer to take Syria’s chemical weapons into a different light. For that offer comes with the caveat that there shall be no U.S. military action against Assad. In other words, we will punish the Assad regime for using chemical weapons by helping it. And will help the opposition in their fight against the Assad regime by strengthening its enemy. To return to the status quo. A Syria strongly allied to Russia and Iran. Growing Russian hegemony in the Middle East. And an America in decline on the world stage.

Week in Review

The Syrian civil war began in March of 2011. And is still ongoing. Some two and a half years later. And over 100,000 killed. While displacing close to 3 million refugees. It is a devastating conflict. But President Obama made no attempt to help the opposition topple the Assad government. Despite it being a close ally of Iran. No, President Obama did nothing to intervene just as he chose to sit out Iran’s Green Revolution. Another regime that can be pretty cruel to its people. Yet President Obama told Hosni Mubarak that he had to leave Egypt. And he used U.S. airpower to help topple Colonel Gaddafi from power in Libya. Both men were U.S. allies at the time when President Obama helped unseat them from power. Yet two countries that can’t be considered friends of the United States in any way (Iran and Syria) he does nothing. Odd.

The Syrian civil war has been going on for so long that al Qaeda joined in. Looking to fill that power vacuum should the Assad regime fall. As the civil war intensified and the opposition begged for foreign aid President Obama stood firm. Not wishing to get involved. Unless the Syrians crossed the red line. And used chemical weapons. Well, someone used chemical weapons. We’re not sure who did. It may well have been the opposition to get the U.S. to bomb a stubborn Assad government out of power. But people died from the use of chemical weapons. Perhaps as many as 1,500. Of which about 500 have been children. A tragedy too great to even contemplate. And one that made President Obama go to Congress to get permission to wage war on those responsible. With many on the left supporting his call for a military response. Which is highly unusual to say the least.

Now chemical weapons are horrible and frightening. But an additional 1,500 dead after 100,000 already lost their lives? Those chemical deaths are only about 1.5% of the total dead. When Saddam Hussein killed 3,200-5,000 Kurds and Iranians in a Chemical attack on the town of Halabja there wasn’t quite the same response from the left. In fact, when Saddam Hussein failed to document the destruction of his chemical stock piles per the treaty that ended the Gulf War they still showed little concern. Though they did vote to give George W. Bush permission to wage war against Iraq as the polls showed they were on the wrong side of the issue when they at first opposed the measure. Even calling for a second vote to get their vote on the record. But when no weapons of mass destruction were found they were both embarrassed and elated. Saying that Bush lied to get the country into war. Due to flawed intelligence reports. And a strong desire to go to war. To finish what his dad started in the Gulf War. They have attacked Bush mercilessly ever since. But now the shoe is on the other foot. And here they are wanting to go to war because of weapons of mass destruction. Many of which could be from Iraq. Delivered on trucks seen leaving Iraqi weapons dumps on the eve of war. Or flown to Syria (see Syria’s Chemical Weapons Came From Saddam’s Iraq posted 7/19/2013 on IBD).

But none of that matters now. What does is that someone in Syria crossed the red line. And because innocent men, women and children died from poison gas we have to do something. Even though we haven’t done a damn thing to help people suffering under worse tyrants for about half a century in North Korea (see Up to 20,000 North Korean prison camp inmates have ‘disappeared’ says human rights group by Julian Ryall posted 9/5/2013 on The Telegraph).

There are fears that up to 20,000 may have been allowed to die of disease or starvation in the run-up to the closure of the camp at the end of last year…

The report, North Korea’s Hidden Gulag: Interpreting Reports of Changes in the Prison Camps, reveals that two camps have been shut down in the last year but that 130,000 individuals are still being held in penal labour colonies across the country.

“Through this vast system of unlawful imprisonment, the North Korean regime isolates, banishes, punishes and executes those suspected of being disloyal to the regime,” the report states.

“They are deemed ‘wrong-thinkers’, ‘wrong-doers’, or those who have acquired ‘wrong-knowledge’ or have engaged in ‘wrong-associations’…”

Reports suggest that a severe food shortage meant that little was passed on to inmates and that numbers dwindled rapidly from 30,000 to 3,000…

“North Korea’s 2009 currency devaluation (whereby camp authorities were reportedly unable to purchase food in markets to supplement the crops grown in the camps), combined with bad harvests, resulted in the death of large numbers of prisoners after 2010,” the report states…

Inmates – who can be imprisoned for life, along with three generations of their families, for anything deemed to be critical of the regime – are forced to survive by eating frogs, rats and picking corn kernels out of animal waste.

Activists say that as many as 40 percent of inmates die of malnutrition, while others succumb to disease, sexual violence, torture, abuse by the guards or are worked to death. Men, women and children are required to work for up to 16 hours a day in dangerous conditions, often in mines or logging camps.

Things are bad in Syria. But North Korea has just about the poorest record on humans rights in the world. And this has been going on for decades. You almost have to go back to Nazi Germany to see oppression on this scale. But do we attack North Korea? More women and children have suffered and died in North Korea than they have in Syria. So why Syria and not North Korea?

North Korea does have nuclear weapons. And a border with China. Are these the things that eliminate principles? Killing women and children is wrong in Syria but it’s okay in North Korea? Is this all it takes to devalue the lives of women and children? If so God help the women and children of the Middle East when Iran gets their nuclear weapons.

A lot of liberals hate the military. And jocks. As these people bullied a lot of liberals back in high school. Which is why a lot of them go into government. To have power over other people that they never had before. But they’re still that kid in high school. They’ll push around Egypt and Libya when it seems everyone in the area is against them. Nations they feel they can bully without any repercussions. But an Iran or a North Korea? That’s like walking up to and punching the big bully in high school. Something they were too frightened to do in High School. And are still too frightened to do now.

Except in Syria. Which is now more of a religious conflict along the great Sunni-Shia divide of Islam. With the extreme elements of both sides fighting it out in Syria. Perhaps this is why the president and the left are willing to intervene now. Because whoever wins now in Syria will likely be anti-American. Just like Libya turned out with four dead Americans in Benghazi. And just like Egypt fell to the Muslim Brotherhood after President Obama told Hosni Mubarak he had to go. Perhaps they’ll feel safer because they helped our enemies a little. And because of that our enemies will now like us. And they will stop giving us wedgies and noogies. Figuratively, of course.

Fundamental Truth

Wherever the Soviets pushed the Americans pushed back to Contain the Expansion of Communism

Once upon a time Democrats were practically warmongers. Woodrow Wilson got us into World War I. FDR got us into World War II. Harry Truman got us into the Korean War. And LBJ got us into the Vietnam War. While Republicans were nearly pacifists. Dwight Eisenhower got us out of the Korean War. And Richard Nixon got us out of the Vietnam War.

Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II. Saw the carnage of war up close. And was glad when it was over. Unlike General Patton. Who wanted to invade the Soviet Union. Because he knew we would have to fight them sooner or later. And rather do it then when they had the most awesome military force in the world still in Europe. General Patton lost command of Third Army because of talk like that. And later would die from injuries he got in a freak car accident.

It didn’t take long following the end of World War II for the Soviets to become the new big bad in town. Just like General Patton foresaw. Truman stood up to them in Berlin. Greece. Turkey. Iran. And Korea. Wherever they pushed the Americans tried to hold the line. To contain the expansion of communism. It was the Cold War. And it first got hot in Korea. But the UN forces held the line in Korea. After three years of war. About as long as America spent fighting in Europe during World War II.

JFK’s refusal to commit American Military Power during the Bay of Pigs Invasion led to the Cuban Missile Crisis

Communism was a thorn in the side of democracy. The democratic West believed in peace through strength. With the occasional war breaking the peace. While the communist East believed in a perpetual state of war with the occasional peace breaking that war. The communists sought to expand through violent revolution. If you contained it early (like in the Berlin Airlift) you could avoid a shooting war. And keep it cold. But if they got a foothold you could find yourself mired in a hot and prolonged war. Like in Korea.

When Fidel Castro turned Cuba communist it was not a good thing for the United States. For all their efforts to contain communism throughout the world here they were. On Cuba. Within missile range of the United States. And Castro was cozying up to the Soviets. Which is why President Eisenhower gave the green light for the CIA to remove Castro from power. To remove a threat so close to the United States. The plan was the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Which proceeded under the following administration. JFK’s.

The invasion, though, did not go well. And unlike in the Guatemalan coup d’état, JFK did not commit American military power to help the invaders (unlike Eisenhower did in the Guatemalan coup). Who were soon pushed back. And defeated. Which breathed new life in Cuba’s communist revolution. Brought them more into the Soviet sphere. And encouraged the Soviets to test this young president. Which they did. By sending nuclear missiles to Cuba. Leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis. And near nuclear war (Castro’s right hand man, Che Guevara, was angry with the Soviets because they refused to nuke the United States during the crisis). While the Cuban people suffered under their communist oppressors. And still do.

Today Iran—and Radical Islam—is the Thorn in the Side of Democracy that Communism once Was

Truman was the last Democrat warrior president. LBJ got us into Vietnam. But he also gave us the Great Society. Turning the nation towards a welfare state. A very costly welfare state. Which the great costs of the Vietnam War threatened. The government, much like they did during the Revolutionary War, began printing money to pay for all of this spending. Devaluing a dollar pegged to gold. With nations concerned with this devaluation they traded their dollars for gold. Which is what is supposed to happen under a gold standard. So nations don’t devalue their currencies. But printing money is easier than cutting spending. So President Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold. So they could really print it. Giving us the inflationary Seventies.

Since then Democrat presidents have done two things. Expanded the welfare state. And demonized their political opponents. Which extended to their foreign policy. President Carter cut back on defense spending. And tried to make friends with our archenemy. The Soviet Union. A president the Soviets had little respect for. Even considering a nuclear first-strike policy as they didn’t think Carter would ever launch his nuclear weapons. And then President Carter criticized American ally, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, for his human rights violation. There was revolutionary fervor in the air. The Shah implored for help from their long-time friend and ally. The United States. Who assured the Shah that the Americans would intervene militarily on his behalf. But didn’t. The Iranian Revolution followed. And Iran became America’s new archenemy.

Iranian oil won World War II. It fed the Red Army. Iran served as a portal into the Soviet Union. War material as well as oil flowed through Iran and into the Soviet Union. After the war the Soviets didn’t want to leave Iran. Give up that oil. Or a warm-weather port on the Indian Ocean. But the British and the Americans helped the Iranians keep the Soviets at bay. Their actions included a coup. And some human rights violations. To keep what happened in Eastern Europe following World War II from happening in Iran. Iran prospered. And Westernized. It was becoming everything the American left loved. Secular. It was becoming more like America. Where men and women enjoyed doing things they could enjoy in New York City. Which angered the Islamists.

Today Iran—and radical Islam—is the thorn in the side of democracy that communism once was. And unlike their Cold War warrior forefathers, today’s Democrats choose party over country. Basing their foreign policy on expanding the welfare state. Or demonizing their political opponents. President Clinton treated al Qaeda’s increasing acts of hostility against Western/American interests as a legal issue. Which grew bolder until they culminated in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Clinton did this so he wouldn’t waste money on defense by risking war to protect America. Or anger his liberal base. After 9/11, George W. Bush fought back.

The Democrats have demonized George W. Bush as a rich oil man who traded blood for oil. While at the same time they said he was purposely causing oil shortages to raise the price of oil. When an opportunity came to overthrow America’s new archenemy, Iran, President Obama did nothing to support the Green Revolution in Iran following questionable election results that kept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. An intervention that would have been in the best interests of both America and the Iranian people. But when the Arab Spring blew through Egypt he was quick to tell our friend and ally, Hosni Mubarak, that he had to go. Turning Egypt over to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. But when civil war came to Syria he chose to do nothing. Until now (to save face from his ‘red line’ comment about chemical weapons?). When the opposition has most probably been infiltrated by al Qaeda.

What is the constant in these Democrat foreign policy decisions? They are the opposite of what the Republicans would have done. So they couldn’t have done them. For it would have vindicated George W. Bush. Angered their liberal base. And made the world a safer place.